Always
by Nat1
Summary: They were there for each other, like always. Dary. One shot. Complete


She was supposed to be here. She should have been the one standing in front of him. He could feel his knees shaking, and it should have been her, there in front of him, her who caught him when his legs failed and he fell to the floor. She should have been the one falling to her knees with him in the middle of the casino floor.

She was his family, his friend, his lover. She was his everything. She was his.

He could feel his leg muscles turn to liquid. He could hear Mike to his left, not the words, but he knew the voice. He locked his legs, refusing to fall, his eyes locking on the wrong woman in front of him. She was the one in front of him; she was the one who told him. And for an instant he hated her for it all. For telling him the news, for not being the right woman, not having long enough hair, her hair being too dark. For being too short, too skinny with not enough breasts and for trying to show compassion he _knew_ she didn't feel. He hated her for not being Mary.

"_Mary_." He shouted the name in his mind, but the shout didn't transfer to his lips.

"I'm sorry Danny, what did you say? I couldn't-"

Mike interrupted her. "Never mind, I'm on it ok man, just hang tight."

He couldn't hear anything, looking at his hands now; he could only see that they weren't shaking. Shouldn't a person's hands shake at a time like this? His eyes drifted back up to the wrong woman. One step forward and Jenny stepped back. She would never have stepped back. His steps became longer, more determined.

She wasn't here where she was supposed to be. He needed her. She was _always_ here when he needed her. Always right here, waiting.

He didn't even realise he was in his car until he was two miles away from the Montecito, speeding down The Strip.

All her reasoning had stopped right about the time she heard Jake tell the pilot to turn around. They weren't even fifteen minutes in the air yet. What had gone wrong? Was the plane going to crash? _Larry_? She heard the words but didn't absorb them. _Larry was dead?_ No. No, no, no. A plane crash she could survive. She wasn't sure she'd survive this.

"_Oh god, Danny_."

There was nothing for her to focus on as the plane quickly descended, her ears popping and nausea crawling steadily from her stomach to throat. The wheels touched down and she vomited to the side of her seat. This wasn't right, it wasn't happening to her because if Larry was really dead then she didn't have a dad anymore, just a father. Oh god, and Danny. She should have been there. What had she been thinking going on a holiday to Hawaii with Jake?

Suddenly she focused on him. He was standing and helping her with her seatbelt, had the landed already? And what was that smell?

He forced a bottle of water into her hands. "Here, rinse and spit it out."

"I can't spit, Jake, not on the floor." She numbly took the bottle her hands shaking so much that a bit spilled out the top.

"It wont make any difference now, Sweetheart. Rinse and spit." She did as he was told noticing the floor. Had she been sick? Suddenly it all caught up to her, the smell, the taste in her mouth, the nausea. Her stomach rolled again.

"Someone named Mitch contacted the pilot. Do you know him?"

_What_? "Mitch? He works with Danny. In security, he's in a wheelchair."

"He contacted the pilot, said Mike would be waiting for us when we land."

"Oh." She was still stuck in her chair.

"Come on Mary, let's go find Mike."

"Okay." He pulled her gently from her chair. The half-mile of tarmac passed quietly in the silence of the car then Mike was there. When had she even gotten out of the car? "Mike?"

He wrapped his arms around her, burying her head in his warm chest. It was nice, but not right. She didn't let go though, not yet. "Mary, are you ok honey? I'm going to take you back to the Montecito okay? We're trying to track Danny down."

She pushed back abruptly, "He doesn't know?"

"Yeah, he does, he took off in his car and we're still looking for him."

"Oh." She buried her head back in his warm arms.

"I thought you guys were crack security people, you cant even find one guy?"

"We're talking about Danny, Danny in Vegas. If he doesn't want to be found, he wont be."

She was sitting in the front of Mike's truck as they pulled into the valet area of the casino. "Where did Jake go?" She asked as Mike opened her door.

"He's right behind us."

"Oh." He rushed her through the entrance into an employee's only door, down the myriad of corridors and through the private door that lead to Ed's office. It wasn't until she was sitting on the couch wrapped in Jillian's arms that she noticed that Jake was on the other side of her. It wasn't until she saw Jillian's tears that she realised she hadn't cried. That wasn't normal was it? She should be bawling, on the ground in a foetal position unable to move until Danny came to pick her up.

Ed was standing in the doorway yelling instructions to Mike and Mitch about finding Danny. They found his car parked at Larry's house, but he was nowhere to be found. Mary knew though, that they wouldn't find him, wouldn't find him until he came back. Or until she went to him.

Danny had always been the same. Since they were kids if there was something he didn't want to face he would run. He ran when his mother died, ran when she told him about her father, ran when he knew he was in trouble. And aside from the time he joined the marines, he always ran to the same place. He would be waiting for her there. She had to go. She shook the numbness off and gained a single-minded determination. _Danny_.

Mike felt as if he were intruding. He had followed Mary as she bolted from Ed's office, had pulled her from the cab and put her into his truck. The hardest part up until now had been to get her to tell him where they were going. She refused to give him an address, only gave him directions when he was coming to a turn. He had thought that the ride over was bad, now he knew better.

He watched as Mary flung herself at Danny. Watched as tears fell down his friends face into her hair before he buried himself into her neck. Mike watched and winced as Danny fell to his knees, taking Mary down with him. And as wrong as he knew it was, the only thing Mike could think of was that he wanted what Danny and Mary had. Someone who would be there, no matter what, someone who would tear the world apart to get to him.

He could see Danny's fingers digging into Mary's back, knew that he would be leaving bruises. He knew that even though the physical grips they had on each other were tight, the emotional ones were even tighter. He knew that neither of them would ever let go of the other now. Danny was jealous and possessive at the best of times, now the only family he had left was wrapped around him and Danny didn't look like letting go anytime soon. Neither did she.

Mike closed his eyes and rested his head on his arms that were folded over the steering wheel. He had to call Ed, had to tell him where Danny was, tell him that he was alright, tell him to get Jake the hell away from the Montecito before he brought them both back. When he looked up again they were looking at each other, Danny's eyes dark and wet, Mary's face red and splotchy. She was talking to him, quietly, her hands pressed to his cheeks, scrubbing away tears that kept falling. He was nodding at whatever she was saying, then they were helping each other to their feet, stumbling towards the truck still wrapped in each other's arms.

He was sixteen again, listening to her scream in her sleep. Listening as his dad ran from the TV room to her, to try and calm her down, knowing it wouldn't work. He wrenched the covers off, running for her room in his boxers. But something was wrong, she was still screaming, she shouldn't be still screaming, that usually stoped when his dad woke her up. _Dad_.

He raced through the door to find Mike trying to calm her, talking to her, touching her. She was backed into the corner, hands slapping at Mike, legs curled up protectively in front of her, eyes wide open, awake but not seeing what was in front of her. He pulled Mike out of the way, pushing him to the other side of the small room.

He sat in front of her, not touching, just calling her name. There was a rhythm to it, to waking her, to stopping the nightmare. The screaming stopped and she focused.

"Danny?"

"Yeah, Mary, I'm here."

Then the crying started. He could handle the screaming, knew how to make it stop, but never had he been able to stop the crying. He felt rather than heard his dad leave the room when she crawled into his lap, sobbing at the memories her nightmares had made her relive. No, not his dad, Mike.

This house held ghosts. It felt just like high school, him in his old room, surrounded by trophies and other memorabilia. Mary across the hall in her room, surrounded by photos and books. He arranged them to lie down on her skinny single bed as they had so many other times, holding her to him, legs entwined like lovers, her head buried in his chest. These nights always ended one of two ways, her crying herself to sleep or her crying herself hoarse and they spent the night talking in whispers until the sun came up.

He wasn't sure which he'd prefer. Danny knew he wouldn't be sleeping again tonight, but he was pretty sure he didn't want to talk either.

"Do you remember when your dad caught us in bed the first time?" Her voice was muffled against his chest and his sharp bark of laughter shot through her body.

"Yeah, he was so pissed at me, he was sure that I was leading you, his sweet little Mary, astray."

She smiled softly, her lips pressed against his smooth chest. "He refused to believe you that I was the one who initiated it all."

"Even after you _told him_ that you started it all."

"We were thirteen, I couldn't even say the word sex without blushing."

"And just two days before that I had to give Jason Berresford a black-eye for trying to kiss you."

"You did that?" She moved back from him, her hand moving to rest on his neck.

"You sound surprised."

"I'm surprised that any boy would talk to me let alone try to kiss me with the way you and Greg used to behave."

"I'm not." She smacked him lightly as his eyes wandered down her body. He grinned at her and kissed her forehead. "What am I gonna do, Mare?"

"I don't know Danny, but whatever you need to do, we do together."

"Like always." He kissed her gently on the lips and pulled away again.

"Like always."


End file.
